Obsession
by MissToothbrush
Summary: I'm obsessed. Addicted. I want to scream, let it out. I want to show them. I want them to know. I want to see them cry, beg for mercy, I want to paint the world with their blood. Anger and revenge are my only thoughts. And I won't be stopped. HIATUS FOR EVER.
1. Chapter 1

I want to scream.

I want to let it out.

I want to show them how I feel.

I want to paint the world red with blood.

_I… hate…_

I don't care.

I don't love.

I don't feel.

I'm dead inside.

It doesn't matter.

Who cares?

_I… hate… despise…_

I want to kill.

I want to show them.

I want to rip up paper.

I can't cry.

I won't cry.

I'm not human.

_I… hate… despise… loathe…_

I want to paint the world red with blood.


	2. Chapter 2

Hi. My name's Taniyama Mai. I'm 18, and naturally, I'm still working at SPR, with Lin-san, who hardly ever talks to me, and Naru, my annoyingly good-looking crush- I mean boss.

I'm also trying to sort out my hectic life, and divide my time appropriately between work, university and lesiure.

I enter the office, hang up my coat and sit down in my office chair, turning idly. I can faintly hear Lin-sans typing, and the dark aura creeping stealthily from under the door probably means Naru's grumpy.

I tidy my desk for the millionth time and spin round and round in my chair becuase that's what they're there for.

"If you keep doing that you'll damage that chair. And I won't pay for a new one." A voice cuts through my spinning and I stop adruptly, feeling slightly dizzy and sick, to see Naru observing me from the doorway of his office.

Opps. How long has he been watching me? He's practically a ninja.

I bite back a remark becuase he gave me a raise last week and I'm grateful becuase I need the money. He raises an eyebrow.

"Er, did you want something?" I ask. He sometimes does this. Leaves his office, often with a book, sits down in one of the chairs, demands tea and will probably mutter something about a headache and then will leave after 10 minutes or so and go back into the depths of his office.

He sits down in a chair (just as I predicted). "Tea." I leave to make the tea, him reading a notebook which I couldn't read even if I wanted to becuase he writes all his notes in English and I'm awful at that.

I give him the steaming cup and sit opposite him, becuase that way I can stare at him better.

"So, what are you doing?" I ask because a conversation with Naru is always about work.

"Working, unlike you." He snaps. "We have a new case."

That raises my eyebrows. "A case?" We haven't had a case for a while. Our last one was before Naru went back to England. "What's going on?"

"Nothing of interest." He does this all the time. It annoys me so much.

"If it was nothing, then why did you take it?" I challenge.

"Becuase." He says. So typical. He probably think I'm too stupid to understand or he can't be bothered to explain. I hate this.

"When are we going?" I ask, making a mental note to bring my school books with me. I can't afford to fall behind in class.

"Later this week. I'll need you to call the others."

"Yeah, what day exactly?" I pressure.

"Saturday. I trust that leaves time for everyone to make any necessary arangments."

"What time?" He should be a politician. But if he was, I wouldn't have this job.

"We'll leave at 11am. If you're not there on time we'll leave without you."

"Yes, sir." I walk over to my desk and pick up the phone, quickly dialling the numbers of Ayako, Bou-san, John and Masako.

I turn around to find Naru still looking at me in a weird way which, as usual, I can't decipher. "What?"

He shakes his head. "Nothing." He gets up and retreats back into his office, leaving his empty tea cup for me to tidy up.

* * *

><p>So, here we are. It's Saturday and we're all here at this house. A nice, large house which I could only dream of living in. We're currently eating, and my shoulders ache becuase of all the equipment I have had to move.<p>

"Are you going to eat that?" The girl sitting next to me asks, gesturing to piece of food I have yet to demolish.

"Er..." My brain has suddenly stopped working and only 'er' can come out of my mouth. She's looking at me expectantly, and I notice that although we're simmilar heights, she looks about 14.

"Yuriko! Manners!" A woman opposite me barks.

"Sorry mother." Yuriko says sadly. "I'm so bored." She mumbles so only I can hear her. Her fingers pick at each other, scratching at the skin right by her nails.

"If you're bored we can talk." I offer.

She looks at me unimpressed. "About what? No-one ever wants to talk about what I want to talk about." She grumbles.

"Well, what do you want to talk about then?"

"I don't know." She looks so grumpy and unhappy.

"You're Yuriko-san, right?" I try.

"Yeah. What about you?"

"I'm Taniyama Mai."

"Hm." I watch as she slides one nail underneath another and drags it out again, only to repeat the process. She doesn't say anything for the rest of the meal, just continues picking and scratching. I sigh.

* * *

><p>Someone shakes me, disturbing me from my peaceful sleep.<p>

"Hm... what?" I mumble, annoyed. The person doesn't say anything, just shakes me again.

"Come and play." The voice of a young girl coos in my ear. Startled, I turn over to see who it is.

No-one's there. I frown confusedly, one hand wiping away some sleepy-dust.

Someone was there. I know they were. People don't just wake you up and then dissapear. Maybe I just dreamt of her and I'm confusing dreams with reality. That happens too much for comfort.

Disgruntled that I got woken up by someone who might not have even been there I check my phone. It's 4am. I groan and bury my head back into the pillows. Why why why? Why did I have to get woken up at _4 frickin' am_? It's like the time Naru gets up, not normal people.

I lay back, watching a small spider crawl its way across the ceiling in the dim light. Now I hardly feel tired. Just great. I stifle a yawn. This is so boring. I roll over so I'm lying on my stomach, lazily draping one arm over the side of the bed. I'm just dozing off when the same voice from earlier says in my ear, "Wake up!"

I turn over, but, as earlier, there's no-one there. I sit up so that I can see all of the room. I couldn't have dreamed her twice. I wasn't even asleep.

My imagination runs wild and I start to think of ghosts. A creak becomes an assassain. A shadow becomes a monster.

"Ayako!" I hiss, trying not to wake Masako up. "Ay. A. Ko!"

"...What?" She mumbles.

"I'm scared!" I hiss, suddenly feeling childish.

"What? Why?" She asks, sitting up, still sleepy.

"Whenever I try to sleep a girl tells me not to!"

"You woke me up for _that_?" She says, grumpy, presumably because she's tired.

"I hear her but I don't see her!" I protest.

"Maybe you're just hearing things. You should go back to sleep." She lies back down again.

"I'm not!" I squeak. She sighs and sits up.

"You're really that scared?"

I pause for a moment and then nod. She gets out of bed and sits next to me on mine.

"There's nothing to be scared of." She says quietly.

"Ayako, we're stuck in a haunted house. There is _a lot_ to be scared of."

"Just try to forget that you're in a haunted house. Think of something else."

I sigh and close my eyes. I start to think of Naru, he's distracting enough. Soon I start to doze again and Ayako moves back to her own bed.

* * *

><p>I awake the next morning with a bitter taste in my mouth and a dream I can't remember. Something about a woman...<p>

Naru grumpily tells us that nothing of interest happened overnight. Only slight temperature fluctuations.

I decide against telling him about the girl that tried to stop me sleeping last night. He'd probably just say something like 'You were hallucinating' and give that 'you're stupid' look.

I easily slip out of base and wander off to explore. It's not long before I find myself at the top of the house. In the attic.

It's obvious that no-one's been here for ages. The windows are thick with grime and dust covers everything. I stiffle a sneeze as some of the dust enters my nose. It's full of junk, suitcases and boxes mostly. My hand automatically reaches for a light switch only to find that there are no lights. I decide to make my way over to one of the cardboard boxes. It opens easily.

It's full of pieces of paper. I take out one. It looks like a small child's drawing of a family. Stick figues, with labels: me, mummy and daddy. All holding hands. It's framed and I set it aside. The other drawings aren't framed and show simmilar things. I notice that on most of the drawings, there's another figure hovering in the background, labelled woman.

Woman isn't holding hands. It doesn't even look like she has hands. She's dressed completely in black, with black hair covering half of her face. She has a sad expression, and looks almost as if she's wilting. I frown. Another drawing with woman, looking exactly the same. A picture of the garden. I can see woman in the background again.

Then I hear a soft, childlike giggle. I spin around, it's just me in the empty attic. I pick up the framed picture. It looks slightly off. Daddy doesn't look happy. Without warning, it smashes, and I hear the door lock.


	3. Chapter 3

I immediatly drop the picture and inspect my hands for glass. Luckily, I avoided most of the glass so I only have to dig out a couple of pieces, but it still hurts. The door. The door!

I scramble over to it and try the handle. Locked. Because that's what I need, to be locked in an attic from which no-one can hear you, and no-one knows where I am. And I think I've got company. Ghost company. Wahay.

Someone behind me tugs on the hem on my top. I spin around, no-one's there. What did I expect? There's a scraping noise to my right. The box. As soon as I look at it it stops moving.

It's almost like a scene from a low budget horror movie.

Except it's real.

I spin around again and tug on the door, when it doesn't open I resort to banging on it and yelling.

Again, I hear the box moving. Seeing as no-one is seemingly coming, I spin around yet again. I'm doing so much spinning I almost feel dizzy. And then I feel something wet soak through the back of my thin top and paster to my body. I squeak, even though it's a bit stuffy in the attic and I secretly welcome the cold. I tug it around. There's a definite wet patch where my top was tugged at, but it looks like water, thankfully, not blood or some other icky substance.

I look at the box. Taking a gulp, I make my way over to it.

Was it just me, or did I hear an excited gasp?

I looked inside the box. A small book lay on top of the papers. As soon as I pick it up the door swings open. Quickly, I stuff it under my top and run out of the room.

* * *

><p>After safely depositing the book under my pillow I went back to base, where I was greeted by an irate Naru.<p>

"Where did you go?"

I squeak in reply. "I was just, er, wandering around..."

"Why did you do that?"

"Because..." I struggle to find a good reason. "... I was bored?" I know as soon as the words popped out of mouth that they weren't perhaps the wisest things I could have said.

Naru sighed, and muttered under his breath something about me being impossible and how one day I was going to get myself killed. I ignore him.

"Jou-chan!" Bou-san says. "We were worried about you!"

"I'm sorry!" I reply through his hug. How long was I gone? I didn't think it was that long, but they hadn't sent someone to search for me so it was probably only an hour or two.

"Why's your top wet?" John asked sweetly from behind me.

"I..." I was trying to find a good thing to say when Ayako noticed my hands.

"You're bleeding!" She exclaims, inspecting one of my hands. "What happened?"

"It's not that much." I say reproachfully. It was only a little bit of blood, but I remember getting worried about Naru when his hand was bleeding a simmilar amount. Okay, he was bleeding a bit more, but you know what I mean.

"You should get a covering on it or something. What were you doing?"

"I..." Damn, they're all waiting for a reasonable explanation. "I went to check out the kitchen." I mentally grimace at my feeble lie.

They all sigh and shake their heads, although I can tell that most of them are trying to work out the logic behind the lie.

"You should go and wash your hands." Ayako tells me and I sigh and nod my head in defeat. I'm making my way to the door when a cold voice freezes me in place.

"I'll come with you. I don't need my assistant injuring herself and getting into even more trouble."

We exit together, inside I'm practically dying. The air is full of awkward-ness and I'm pretty sure that he's chosen to accompany me for something other than to keep an eye on me.

I start washing my hands, almost wincing when the soap gets in one of the slightly deeper cuts.

"Mai, where were you? And I want the truth, not the lie you told the others."

I feel like banging my head against the wall. Of course he knew I was lying. Damn him and his stupid good looks and his intelligence.

"I went to the attic." I can't see the bother of lying.

"Why?"

"I just wandered around until I came to the attic." I shrug. "And I'm sure no-one's been to the attic for, like, _years_."

"Mai, stop deviating."

"I'm getting to it! There was a box and it was full of drawings."

"...And?"

"It was full of child's drawings. Of people, mostly, you know. Me, mummy, daddy, all holding hands. Sun is in the sky, birds are singing, etc. But a lot of them had another person in them, labled as 'woman'. And she looked creepy. She looks almost like she's wilting, long black clothes, long black hair covering most of her face."

He nods, but the movement is so slight I almost didn't catch it.

"And one of them, without woman, is framed. I'm looking at it, and it suddenly smashes."

"Which is how you got the cuts." He clarifies. I nod.

"The door locks and I can't get out. Something tugs at the back of my shirt-"

"Which is why part of your top is wet."

"-yeah, but nothing's there. Then the door locks and come back to base."

He didn't say anything after I finish the simplified version of what happened in the attic, but I can tell he's thinking. The door opens.

"Oh, sorry." Yuriko says, not really sounding apologetic. Now that we're not sitting next to each other at the dinner table I get a proper look at her. She's a simmilar height - although probably younger, with shoulder length greasy hair. She nervously scratches her head. "I didn't realise anyone was in here." She turns, and I notice that there's red under her long fingernails. Blood. I look at the door blankly for some time after she leaves.

"Mai, are you going to do anything instead of just standing there?"

"Er, sorry..." I apologise, finishing drying my hands.

The walk back is completely silent. I don't dare speak, and Naru's deep in thought.

* * *

><p>As soon as I can, I sneak back to my bed and fish out the book. Sitting comfortably on my bed, I open it.<p>

It's a diary, presumably by the same child who drew the pictures. It starts off slightly boring, as you would expect - today I did this, went for a walk with Mummy etc.

But then it gets more interesting. She starts to mention seeing someone - Woman. But woman doesn't do much. She tends to mope around, it seems.

_Today I was drawing another picture when I looked up and I saw Woman. She was looking at my drawing so I asked her if she wanted to join me. She didn't say anything so I drew her instead. _

Who the hell is woman? And what is she doing?

I turn another page, then glance at the clock. I should probably be getting back...

* * *

><p>I toss restlessly in bed. Faint snores and steady breaths tell me that both Ayako and Masako are asleep. Why only me? I roll over so I'm lying on my front, fiddling with a piece of my hair.<p>

'_He doesn't love you!'_

Wha... what was that? It sounded like a voice, but in my head!

_'You can't have him! He's my husband! You have your own!' _Another voice, still in my head, by a different speaker. They seem almost overpowering, as if they're going to turn my brain into mush. I automatically press my hands to my ears in a fruitless bid to stop the noise.

_'You know he doesn't love you! You may be his wife but he only married you for money!'_

_'You're just jealous.'_

_'Why would I be jealous? He doesn't love you! He loves me!'_

_'Lies... you're lying!'_

_'Stop decieving yourself. Have you noticed? Hoshiyo has simmilar eyes as your husband, does she not?'_

_'No...'_

I sit up adruptly. A dream? Or reality?

I sigh, rubbing my head, which aches faintly. It's still dark, proof that it's nighttime, but I can see around clearly enough. I sigh again, and swing out of bed, making my way to the window. I open the curtains and look out at the inky landscape.

Then there's a thump on the window. I gasp, jumping out of surprise, as a grey, rotting face appears and stares into my wide eyes.


End file.
